In a surprise move the Burmese junta has ordered a census, which is underway in Kachin State’s capital Myitkyina, northern Burma from yesterday for the countrywide elections this year, said local people.
The census said to be urgent was undertaken a day before Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visits Burma to discuss energy and other mutual issues.
The census is being undertaken on the sudden orders of Kachin State’s administrative office known as Kachin State Peace and Development Council (Pa-Ya-Ka). All members of each family in the capital are being counted in every quarter and village by the administrators of quarters and villages, said Myitkyina residents.
Residents of Tatkone, or Dapkawng quarter said the administrators have ordered residents to deliver two copies of the “family-member document” to the quarter administrative office urgently.
Myitkyina, Kachin's capital, Northern Burma. Photo: Kachin News Group.
The residents said they have been instructed to deliver family-member documents to the administrative offices within three days.
The same thing was done in Kachin State and the rest of Burma during the referendum on the constitution in May, 2008.
Meanwhile, the junta-back Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) is increasingly mobilizing people in a village to village campaign in Kachin State even though no Kachin political party has been approved for contesting the polls in the state yet.
The Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP) has put a stop to its election campaign in Kachin State since early May awaiting as it is the decision of the Union Election Commission, said KSPP officials in Myitkyina.
The KSPP is led by Dr. Manam Tu Ja, former Vice-President No. 2 of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the last remaining Kachin armed group, which has rejected the junta’s Border Guard Force proposal. The KSPP is expected to be the largest party at the state level, if recognized, apart from the junta-backed parties.
Indicative of the junta’s move to prepare for the elections is the regime’s plan to change heads of all governmental departments and military heads at the state level, residents of Myitkyina said.
